With solid expertise built over more than three decades of practice and spanning six states, Stephanie's background includes being a seasoned clinician, consultant, educator (including full-time professor), presenter, author, researcher, program coordinator, consumer scientist (including recipe developer), advocate, counselor, coach, and mentor.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to offer a blog that encourages you to expand your sensory enjoyment of tasty food, rich in vital nutrients, to help you maximize your health and enjoy a flavorful life.
See it, Smell it, Taste it!

Welcome

Welcome to Sensory Nutrition! Please come in and join Stephanie and the rest of the staff here.

The doors at Sensory Nutrition are usually open 24/7, so come in and visit with us when YOUR schedule allows. We would love to share some of our secrets for nutritious and delicious meals you can make as part of your busy 21st century lifestyle.

Whether cooking for one or for many, our motto is: Get more out of life and enjoy life more.

Even on days when almost every last bit of energy seems to be used up, you can still nuke a cup of water, right?

Well, we’re here to tell you that if you can nuke a cup of water, you can make at home a no-kneading-required pizza! No kidding!

We’ll share a single rise crust, fun to top and super simple to bake pizza recipe that our webmaster has kindly agreed to share with our readers. It is adapted from the Pizza Dough I recipe which can be found at the allrecipes.com website, so full credit goes to that source for their original recipe.

There’s a webcomic site that has a page about “learning to cook” which involves giving up on that idea and repeating the cycle of ordering delivery pizza. If you’d like a chuckle, check it out. The version of made-at-home-pizza we’re suggesting really is a viable alternative for even those who consider themselves a novice cook (or those who are tired, almost out of energy, yet have some cooking experience) to avoid letting food go to waste in the refrigerator; or to succumbing to delivery, frozen, or take-out pizza!

You’ll want to use a lycopene-rich tomato paste based “tomato sauce” or a tomato paste rich “spaghetti sauce” and you might have some in your refrigerator.

For those who do regularly cook on weekends, possibly you took advantage of Farmers Market specials for the last of the summer season tomatoes to create some homemade sauce. Maybe you make your own spaghetti sauce by mixing up some tomato puree or crushed tomatoes with some tomato paste and maybe even add in some petite diced tomatoes for good measure, plus your own chosen herbs and related seasoning choices to flavor the sauce just the way you like it.

You could also “tweak” some purchased commercial sauce to come up with a “semi-homemade” version that you are comfortable using. Tomato products also typically contain the antioxidants phytoene and phytofluene, which are both colorless carotenoid precursors to lycopene. Anyone who is a fan of a Mediterranean style diet knows how central tomato products are to it–the more antioxidants, the better we like it!

Topping choices for a made-at-home-pizza can include virtually anything and it is up to you what you choose to add.

The pizza variation shown features a lycopene-rich tomato paste based “tomato sauce” along with shredded chicken (you can use convenient canned chicken), reduced fat mozzarella cheese, a sprinkling of an Italian herb blend, and even some pieces of purchased pre-cooked bacon (the type that stores flat in your freezer so you can remove only the amount you need) just to show that once-in-a-while you can splurge a little.

Yes, it’s intentional that we showed a pizza wedge that looks somewhat similar to what a commercially available pizza product might look like (since that is what we are suggesting you replace with a product you make at home), however, there are major differences in both nutritional content and flavor that favor the made-at-home version.

Note that in the made-at-home pizza version, the calories have been cut at least in half compared to the lowest levels found in commercial products; while there is more fiber, great EVOO flavor and omega fatty acids, healthier white meat shredded chicken, yet still some calcium and protein from a better cheese source alternative of reduced fat mozzarella, and as much antioxidant rich tomato-paste-rich tomato sauce as you desire.

2. While the yeast is proofing, combine all dry ingredients in 5 qt mixer bowl of stand mixer. Once yeast is proofed, add it plus the EVOO to the dry ingredients in the bowl, and slowly start to mix on low speed with mixer. The dough should form a large ball around the mixer paddle and pull away from the sides of the bowl.